Parks, Lakes, and Oil Fields
Jewel a Prairie Princess
In regal style, Texas-sized Alberta
lords it over her sister prairie
provinces of Saskatchewan and
Manitoba in both area and popu
lation.
Queen Victoria's daughter, the
Princess Louise Caroline Alberta,
gave her name to the province.
Nature lures both tourists and
capital: Scenery and winter sports
attract thousands to the extensive
national parklands; fertile plains
produce asuperabundance of grain.
Oil, natural gas, and new indus
tries are exploding wilderness
crossroads into cities.
He's off at the first buck! A rider
at Calgary's famed Stampede hits
the dirt. Now it's up to the clown
dodging in and out of his barrel to
distract the bull. The job calls for
courage, quick wits, and - of course
-
a barrel made of padded steel.
HIGH SPEED EKTACHROMEl) NATIONALGEOGRAPHICSOCIETY
stretched hands of tourists from a dozen
countries.
Frontier carts behind teams of buffalo lum
bered through the crowds. Feathered Indian
bucks, stone-faced squaws, and copper
cheeked papooses in buckskins rode docile
pintos nose-to-tail down a gantlet of cameras.
In little clearings in the forest of white Stetsons,
square dancers swung to and fro.
Yet all Eighth Avenue's activity could not
compare with what was going on down at the
Stampede grounds. Bucking horse riders from
all over the western United States and Canada
were battling some of the meanest cayuses in
captivity. Junior cowpunchers, some freckled
and scarcely nine years old, were tumbling on
their heads over the horns of wild steers.
Calf roping, steer decorating, wild cow
milking, wild horse saddling, Brahman bull
riding-all the western rodeo events were
David S. Boyer, of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'S
Foreign Editorial Staff, covers Alberta in the dual
role of writer-photographer.
Members will recall Mr. Boyer's recent articles:
"British Columbia: Life Begins at 100," in the issue
for August, 1958, "Geographical Twins a World
Apart," December, 1958, and "Portugal's Gem of
the Ocean: Madeira," March, 1959.
there. And so were half a million cash custom
ers, for the "greatest outdoor show on earth."
In the good old days of the Calgary Stam
pede, thirty-odd years ago, they raced real
range chuck wagons, with spavined old range
horses in harness.
Today's wagons, though they look as
creaky as ever, have been streamlined, and
the horses are racing thoroughbreds, matched
for one of the biggest purses and most coveted
trophies in Canada.
If there has been, since the era of Roman
chariots in the Circus Maximus, a race with
more frenzy, more daring, and more fear sus
pended in the throats of spectators, it must
have been a shattering thing to witness.
Chuck Wagons Race for Royalty
As Queen of Canada, Elizabeth II flew to
Calgary last July to watch the chuck wagon
races. There was no doubt that this British
Queen, who has seen the spectacular horse
races of the world, was on the edge of her
chair. I saw her wince as four horses spun them
selves and wagon into a circular collision on
the twisting breakaway before her pavilion.
The tangle dissolved without casualties,
and you could hear all Calgary sigh. Calgar
ians wanted to spare their Queen the collisions
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